Cloning Human Beings Is Not Ethical.

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Cloning Human Beings Is Not Ethical

                         Abstract

Cloning is a hot subject in our world today, one full of controversy. This started when Prof. Ian Wilmut cloned the first sheep in 1997, named Dolly. Since then, mice, cats, and cows have been cloned. Now the cloning of humans threatens our world. Clonaid claims to have cloned at least 3 babies so far. None have been proven. A brief history is given about Clonaid and its founder, Rael. Also, the beliefs of some other religions and where they stand on the subject of cloning are covered, showing cloning is unethical.

               The Cloning Controversy

     What is cloning? Cloning or asexual reproduction is basically the production of an individual genetically identical to an already existing individual. The actual name of this process is “somatic cell nuclear transfer,” which is a fancy name but its concept is simple: Take a mature but unfertilized egg and remove its nucleus; introduce a nucleus obtained from a specialized somatic cell of an adult organism (Cloning, 2003). Once the egg begins to divide, transfer the little embryo to a woman’s uterus to initiate a pregnancy. Since most of the heredity material of a cell is contained in its nucleus, the re-nucleated egg and the individual that is born from this process are genetically the same. This process could even be used to clone someone who is dead without his or her consent, a real threat to reproductive freedom, which has received very little attention.

      To clone or not to clone a human being is no longer considered just a simple question. The past success in cloning mice, cats, cows, and even sheep, makes it very clear that a serious decision is now at hand: whether we should tolerate or even allow genetic altering or the cloning of homosapiens: Although cloning has helped science, it is unethical.

     Clonaid, the company that claims to have produced the first human clone, said recently that a third cloned child had been born to a Japanese couple. The company has provided no proof that any of these babies are actually clones (Claims 3’rd Clone Is Born, 2003). Many experts worldwide are very skeptical, because Clonaid would not allow them to take DNA samples. Regardless of whether any of these babies were actually born as claimed, we as American citizens should use this unsettling report constructively by speeding up our personal evaluation of human cloning. If the Raelian cult’s claim is false, it is just a matter of time before it actually happens. Not only are the Raelians engaged in this disturbing enterprise, but also a fertility clinic in Italy and an embryology laboratory in Kentucky also claim to be close (Limbaugh, 2003).

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     The media has been softening us up for this possibility by turning the wild and bizarre into the familiar. Since the birth of Dolly, the sheep, cloned in 1997, the tone of discussion over the

prospect of human cloning has dramatically changed. It has gone from a negative response to one of grudging acceptance seemingly over night. Many bioethicists have downplayed talk concerning cloning only the best and the brightest or the beautiful and the smart. They have instead been defending clonal reproduction for humanitarian and compassionate reasons: to treat infertility in couples said to have no other ...

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